List of all notable quotes by or about Bruce Banner (Earth-616). (Please add any important quotations that may be missing, ensuring to cite the original source. Pages with a quote from this character will automatically be added here along with the quote.) Appearances · Minor Appearances · Mentions · Invocations · Items · Quotes · Images · Gallery
Who would ever have dreamt --only a few short years ago-- that the world-famous atomic expert, Dr. Bruce Banner would be the object of the greatest man hunt of all!
Hulk doesn't understand. First little man fights Hulk... and now he fights Hulk's enemy? But if Hulk's enemy is little man's enemy... then little man is Hulk's friend!
Huh? Is Sword-Girl -- with Cape-Man! Cape-Man is one who sent Hulk here-- and now Cape-Man steals Hulk's friend! ... Hulk will not let Cape-Man steal friends from Hulk.
I remember the horror of Zzax's hunger! When he sits down to supper, there's nothing left of the human beings on which he feeds! So Zzzax must not feed! This time the Living Dynamo goes hungry!
But obviously, someone's using my machines, my research without my authorization! Someone's using an untested, incredibly dangerous experimental technique -- to play God!
Man said Hulk 'looks dumb,' but men act dumb. Maybe Hulk acts dumb, too, sometimes. Hulk always thinks all humans bad -- thinks everything humans do is bad. But humans a lot like Hulk -- sometimes hurt -- sometimes help.
I can't believe this nightmare is still going on! I thought it was over... I thought I was dead! But I'm not... I'm here, wherever here is--still alive... still half man, half Hulk!
Who do you think you are, Banner? You're just like me, only the other direction. You don't feel you're passionless. Got no fire in your eyes. I'm more alive than you'll ever be. I hunger for life.
I think you should know that I find the prospect of littering the landscape with you very distasteful. You're just grunts, after all. So believe my sincerity when I say to you...let us reason together.
We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin. Farnoq Dahn, two-bit petty tyrant of Trans-Sabal, brought before his people and made to answer for his crimes. Film at eleven.
Let me guess... you're the good guy, right? And we just had us one of those good-guy-meets-good-guy-and-they-fight-on-their-first-meeting-then-team-up-against-the-bad-guys-encounter.
You called me... Hulk? Hulk doesn't know where he comes from! Doesn't know where he's going! He only knows Hulk goes where he wants -- and anyone who gets in Hulk's way -- HULK SMASHES!
You were playing a blues riff on the harmonica, do you remember? That day on the atom bomb testing range, all those years ago. "That'll Be The Day That I Die". Ironic, considering.
To think--there have been times, moments in the past few years when I've almost thought there might be a chance I could control the Hulk, harness that power for the good of all. Yet always, always the dream dies, the madness comes back. And each time, it seems worse than before.
Your own little garden of slaves and sycophants, eh, Candler? Don't you all understand? You're not human! You're artificial life candler created out of mutant plant tissue!
Recently--the Hulk has discovered his scheme--he's learned to assert his control--to fight back. If you kill me now-- --Tyrannus wins-- he'll move on to another victim--control someone else--please--you've got to help me--you must let me stop him!
I keep seeing this green creature - a huge, great, muscled monstrosity that's just screaming and screaming with pain. I get the feeling... it's chasing after me, trying to kill me.
It wouldn't even matter if I did. I don't get to make those kinds of declarations any more. I can't be tempted to. I'd just be giving the monster something new to wreck.
You tried to kill us with swords and spears. You tried to kill us with bombs. You tried to kill us with your stupid Spikes. But that just made us mad. So get ready, Red King. Now we're coming for you.
The people said I was the Sakaarson. Come to save them and unite them. But I was the World Breaker all along. I just didn't know you were too. Stupid humans, with your stupid shuttle. Can't you do anything right? I wanna die. I wanna burn into nothing. But with your bomb, you just made me stronger. The strongest one there is. The only one there is. Give-- them-- back! Give! Them! BACK! Give her back.
Remember this, puny humans. We came here for justice, not murder. So no one on your planet has died by our hands. And no one will. But we'll make sure no one on Earth will ever forget what you are. Liars. Traitors. And killers.
Red Hulk thinks Hulk is stupid. Red Hulk hurts everybody. Red Hulk likes to kill. Red Hulk is bad Hulk. GREEN HULK STOPS RED HULK HERE! There is only one HULK. And he is GREEN!
Why do you hate me so much? You sound like the Hulk in the past. Blaming Banner for keeping him 'locked away.' Is that who you are? Some other aspect of my personality? Like the grey Hulk? Or is it worse than that? ARE YOU THE HULK'S HULK?!
You shot the Hulk into space. Exiled him to the other side of the universe. And within a year he was back here in gladiator armor smashing you all to pieces. If Tony were around, he'd tell you. The Hulk will return.
Very soon, Skaar is going to kick you. When you regain consciousness, you'll be in the next state over -- and you'll have forgotten both how and where you found us. Is that understood?
You've had it for a long time. Since the day we met. ... That moment that changed everything for both of us. The day the Hulk was born. You never stopped hating yourself for that, Rick. Even though you were just a kid who couldn't have known. ... The guilt is why you won't let yourself turn back into Rick Jones. But Rick -- even if I don't live through this, you've got to know. It's not your fault. I forgive you... It's not. Your. Fault.
You already know. Lies. I've deceived all of you. Used all of you. My best friends...the heroes I most admire in the world...and my only son. Because if any of you knew all the different angles I'm playing...you'd never trust me again. But I've wrapped my brain around this a billion times...and this is the only way...the only possible chance I have to save the world...and my wife.
No. If you go up there, he'll kill you. Or you'd be forced to kill him. And then I'd kill you. You're staying right here with the rest of the little people, Rogers.
That's when I realized what Jen brings to the table. What makes her an essential part of this family. She may be able to get by...even thrive in modern society. And she may be a clown, and a general pain in the butt. But when it comes down to it, Jen is a lawyer, a good lawyer. She looks for every angle, every truth, half-truth and lie before she makes a decision. While every other Hulk reacts first and thinks later, using blind anger as a guide... It's Jen who sees that not everything is black and white.
I tend to see transformations in terms of anger, but what drives Rick is guilt. He can't convice himself that isn't responsible for the Hulk. Even though I made the bomb. It's all on me. Now he runs towards every big threat, always recreating that day, solving it over and over. Is that healthy? I don't know that I'm qualified to say. I'm a physicist. All I know is he's going to do it whether I want him to or not...and it makes him happy. There's got to be room for a happy Hulk somewhere, right?
You and Amadeus defeated the Chaos King. Repaired the universe. Saved the lives of billions of mortals. And restored Olympus. ... But you forgot about the Hulks. ... Rick's horribly injured, he needs to be healed. Betty's insane, in her Red She-Hulk form, she's crazier than the Hulk. She needs to be cured. And Korg...and Skaar...just need to find a place where they can belong. I've tried, and I'll keep trying, using science or muscle or whatever I can. But I'm...I'm so tired. And you're...you're just brimming over with all this ridiculous magic. Fix it. Fix us.
Though it was nice to have a conversation with my LAWYER that I knew for a change wouldn't be MONITORED. The deal is THIS: S.H.I.E.L.D. provides me LAB RESOURCES, and they can use the HULK. But Daredevil--a.k.a. lawyer MATT MURDOCK--is my FAILSAFE. I have him on retainer because I've given him a SECRET DEPOSIT that's my INSURANCE. Hill knows that if S.H.I.E.L.D. CROSSES me Matt Murdock makes it PUBLIC--and turns this entire country UPSIDE DOWN in a cataclysm that will bring that U.S. goverment to its KNEES. So why do I have this feeling... that my day in court is coming SOON...?
They all try to tell me that Betty was on site all along. When I explain that Zarrko's meddling in time temporarily ERASED her, they make clucking noises and act like I'm crazy. I'm not. Maybe because I was at the CENTER of that whole chronal maelstrom, I remember the events of the last few days in a way no one ELSE seems to. As far as DIRECTOR HILL is concerned, time's been RIGHTED. Restored to its PROPER FLOW. All the missing, time-displaced souls we set out to RESCUE are safe and SOUND. And me? I'm okay. The reigning theory is that when Hulk broke the time barrier on his own, the shock waves rewrote all the fast-building contradictions and paradoxes in his--MY--history. Everything's just as it WAS. Except it ISN'T. There's a dangling thread left hanging. I can feel it. It's like an ITCH in my BRAIN. Something about my past...some tiny detail... has CHANGED. But I can't zero IN on it. All I can do is pray that it wasn't especially SIGNIFICANT.
Time and again, I see it play out BEFORE me. Someone-- --not ALWAYS me-- --loses his or her TEMPER in a split-second of FURY-- and makes the WRONG ENEMY.
I'm proud to say I've put S.H.I.E.L.D. resources to good use for the world. Which is surprising, as I managed to improve myself not at all. I keep swearing it's all about "Hulk destroys, Banner builds," but... But this last episode... Jessup becomes a monster because he broke quarantine to look for me because the Hulk escaped... Because the Avengers tried to disable my bomb because I built it hastily... Because I needed the credit. All those years on the run, I didn't grow up much. But I know I can do better than that. I will do better. From here on out, I leave the jealousy and the bitterness all behind me. Starting now.
You did it, didn't you? You arrogant, elitist son of a bitch. I told all of you never to do it again... But you did it anyway. You re-formed the Illuminati, didn't you?
I close my eyes and sleep. I dream for the first time since my Extremis rebirth. My mind reboots in R.E.M. sleep. In this dream I play the part that man has written for me. I am the Hulk. The strongest one there is. I get the last word in an old, long-runing argument... I say goodbye to some friends. Now there's nobody to tell me what to do. In my dreams, I am truly free.
My name is Bruce Banner, and I've been locked away by the Hulk. He's used every trick to hide me away. He had a smart teacher. But now, finally, I am free... Just in time to die.
I've been "cured" before. And the Hulk always found a way back. I have to keep focus. Stay in control. Slow my breathing. Lower my heart rate. Push down these boiling emotions... because no matter what those machines say, I can still feel him, just under the skin... or can I?
When I was four, I saw my father kill my mother. And years later, I killed him. I didn't mean to. But I did it. I've got that kind of anger inside. That kind of capacity. But you... you have your own problems. And your Hulk's gonna have his own problems as a result. And you may not love everything you learn about yourself. But you're not a... you're not a monster. You're not me, Amadeus. You're not me.
Okay... I'm a nuclear physicist, not a psychiatrist... but the way I see it, my sin has always been anger. That's how I react to trauma and isolation. But you're built a little differently. When bad things happen to you... you get angry or sad like everyone else... but for better or for worse, you draw your strength from something else altogether... pride.
I thought... I thought you might actually have the secret. Might be able to show me a way out. But no. You've got a good heart. You just wanted to save everyone... including the sea beast. I know the feeling. But the Hulk's right. You let that thing inside you take the wheel... and you could killyour whole damn world.
Hnh. Not sorry enough.You wanted science. You wanted a set of rules. From me. Big mistake. See... science is the other guy. And when you mess with him... I take it personal.
I know you locked me away for years. I know I scare you. What I do. What I am. But before any of the others... I was there. Protecting you. I'll always protect you. ... 'cause I love you, you stupid kid. Somebody had to. Come on home.
Banner is my family. I'd do anything for him. But I can't be with him. I'm glad you were. You're a good man, Peter Parker. I'll try to remember that next time we meet.
Wait! Before we separate, the Wasp and I have something to say! Each of us has a different power! If we combined forces, we could be almost unbeatable!
I'm sick of bein' hunted and hounded! I'd rather be with you than against you! So, whether you like it or not, I'm joining the... the... Hey! What are you callin' yourselves?
BY THE BRISTLING BEARD OF ODIN!! Thou dost not fall! What manner of being art thou??! I, who can see a hummingbird's wing, though he be a universe away... I, who can hear the rustling of a leaf within some distant galaxy... Never have I witnessed so mighty a mortal!
So... you can hear a leaf when it trembles! If your ears are that sensitive... Let's see what this does to them! (double fist pounds the Bifrost Bridge, stunning Heimdall and sending him flying with the resultant shockwaves)
Nothing wrong with that Langkowski! I just wanted to have a little pleasure in the process! The pleasure of possessing--and consciously controlling--more power the i've ever know in my life!
Hulk...I don't know about this. Even if S.H.I.E.L.D. is corrupt, even if the government is making gamma bombs...which I doubt...why do you assume they'd stoop to killing Bruce Banner?
Ah, but the public has read of your demise, too. Not only that, but i seem to recall Doctor Strange's funeral. All of us, men who are alive when, by rights, we should be dead. Do you know what that makes us?
Tremble, little green mortal! For I am he whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun! I am he before whom all sentient beings in the Andromeda Galaxy once bowed and feared my might! I am Fin Fang Foom, exiled ruler of the Makluan! This island is the staging area for our invasion of this world! And you shall be the first to kneel in fear!
Let us be Warbound. In life and death, the oath that cannot be broken. He was Lavin Skee, protector of Elloe Kaifi and hero of our second trial. We who honor him speak our true names and bind to each other forever. Hiroim the Shamed, shadow warrior and Saka priest.
Huh. Back when we first met, that's all I wanted. I hated the stupid humans. They never left me alone. Then I saw you in the sky, thought you were a flying saucer. I wanted to catch you, make you take me away to another world.
Hey, Banner! Come on, man! You think you're special? You're not! Everybody on the planet feels the way you do! We're all angry. We're all crazy. We all wish we could blame it on a monster inside of us. But we all deal with it. Just like you do. For pete's sake, man, you're a freaking hero! I've seen it! A hundred times over! So why...why can't you just take what you've earned?
Ever since I was born, I've been fighting. Fighting for survival. For sanity. For control. For years, I fought against my own nature. I fought to be free of what I thought was a curse. But now... Now I fight to be whole.
Ever since I was first spat into this world, I've had to fight for everything I've ever gotten. I fought to be born. To be left alone. To be free. But now I just fight to be who I am. Whatever the hell that might be. Tomorrow I might wanna kill Bruce Banner all over again, but right now... He's all I got.
If it's any consolation, I don't think this lasts. I... feel as if I've tried to stay longer. To move past this place... to be... cleansed... anyway. I suppose now we both know how it's done.
Hulk is... sorry. Didn't mean to land on fence. Hulk will... Hulk will fix fence if human will stop yelling at ... Wait! What is Hulk doing? Puny human yells at Hulk -- and Hulk just lets him? Bah! Get out of Hulk's way, puny human -- before Hulk loses his temper!
With Frank Sinatra retired and me on the inactive list, I'm afraid the Jet Set's had it. 
